CuriousCat Archive Page 150 of 202

  1. Is it possible to troll someone without meaning to?

    that's kind of a semantic argument about whether "trolling" is defined by intent of the perpetrator or effect on the recipient

  2. If time travel were possible, would it be ethical?

    there's a really interesting movie about this question called Back to the Future Part III

  3. In Death of a euphemism you said that democrat policies got america out of the great depression and caused the greatest economic growth in history. This is all false, the government intervention prolonged the recession it would have only lasted a few years instead it lasted throughout the 1930s. And the economic prosperity was not because of Democrats it was because america was the only industrialized nation not bombed and destroyed or in a war. The USA was literally the only place you could buy cars and other industry goods from.

    mhmm, and then miraculously all that growth and prosperity just happened to diminish when we started deregulating the market, and one of the worst recessions in history just happened to occur immediately after a Republican changed our tax system, and the middle class started to collapse and subsist on debt, and the country for the first time started running a deficit, and a period of more frequent recessions of greater intensity began, all BY PURE COINCIDENCE right after Republican economic policies replaced Democratic ones

    I am aware that the US being the primary industrial sector following the war was a major factor in the prosperity of the Boom Years, but pull your head out of your ass if you think it was the only one

  4. i dunno there's something eternally entertaining about people who use "x is a result of sexual repression" as a form of structural critique

    in response to Do you know about Wilhelm Reich, The Mass Psychology of Facism?

    entertaining, sure

    but not intellectually compelling

  5. 61% of the US population is white.

    If you're not willing to make a minor change to your rhetorical strategy to bring enough of them around to real achieve political change, then are you really committed to solving systemic issues, or are you more concerned with being morally pure?

    in response to Wouldn't it be more rhetorically effective to simply delineate between individual racism and systemic racism since white people are going to accept that "prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior" alone isn't a form racism?

    It's not about moral purity, it's about accuracy. White people consistently refuse to acknowledge the systemic aspect of racism. They boil racism down to being solely about hurt feelings, and assume it is always intentional. So when we talk about disparities in hiring rates, incarceration rates, education, and we call any of them "racism," a lot of white folks immediately shut down because, to them, racism MUST be the intentional act of an avowed bigot. And it is *that* denial of the systemic that makes them bristle when we say racism involves power and you can't be racist against white people.

    And accommodating that is playing into the exact issue we need them to move past. We split "racism" into two categories and they're just going to deny that systemic racism exists, keep pretending Martin Luther King's and Malcolm X's words apply equally to them, and keep insisting that their hurt feelings when experiencing racial prejudice are just as bad segregation. Because, you see, all those historical thinkers were talking about racism, not "systemic racism."

    Accommodating white people doesn't accomplish anything. The fact that so many white people are treating something as trivial as the definition of a word as their hill to die on only proves my point: we are not going to solve racism by appealing to the better natures of those in power. We're going to address it by demanding better from them.

  6. Do you know about Wilhelm Reich, The Mass Psychology of Facism?

    I think I've seen it cited a few times in my research but haven't read it. The blurb online says he argues fascism is a result of sexual repression? Not, uh... not a compelling argument at first blush.

  7. While I love Eternal Sunshine, your description reminds me of Shane Carruth's Upstream Color, which I'm completely crazy about, but I've still only seen it twice, probably five years apart, because I am just emotionally wrecked and literally exhausted after watching it.

    Have you seen it?

    in response to Why is eternal sunshine of the spotless mind your favorite movie?

    Yeah, I saw it in the theater with Carruth present for a Q&A after!

  8. Do you go back over your scripts to make sure the language you use is comprehensible to a layman?

    I don't do a "simple English" pass, if that's what you mean, but I consciously avoid using jargon, try to use examples and metaphors that are accessible to most people, and, though I'm a fan of big words, I try to make sure their meaning is deducible from context

  9. Do you get a kick out of oblivious conservatives/fascists feeling compelled to comment on TARP as if it was aimed at them, thus boosting its engagement?

    yes and no

    like, it's funny knowing some ding dong spent FOUR HOURS "debunking" How to Radicalize a Normie, but I've been on the shit end of a few dogpiles and this is often how it begins, and, however funny it is when it stays on YouTube, I'm always wondering, "does this end with me getting doxxed?"

  10. Wouldn't it be more rhetorically effective to simply delineate between individual racism and systemic racism since white people are going to accept that "prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior" alone isn't a form racism?

    in response to Wouldn't it be more rhetorically effective to simply delineate between individual racism and systemic racism since the general public isn't going to accept that "prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior" alone isn't a form racism?

    changing definitions from how they have been historically used by POC to better accommodate white people who refuse to understand those definitions is itself a form of racism

  11. Have you ever been invited to collab with other YouTubers on videos?

    a little

    I read a comment in Shannon's Parasocial Hell vid

  12. I've been reading "Sex at Dawn" (partially due to your recommendation) and in the Tragedy of the Commons section, the authors briefly mention that the problem with communism is that Marx doesn't account for scale. That shame is a vital part of community ownership for keeping in line people who overuse resources, and shame is less effective in larger societies because people can no longer keep track of everyone. This is in the context of research that humans can only keep track of about 150 individuals in a group. Any thoughts on this?

    So when I said that the go-to polyamory books are Sex at Dawn and The Ethical Slut, I didn't mean to imply that I've read either (I got maybe a third of the way through Ethical Slut, haven't touched Sex at Dawn).

    So I dunno what to say on this.

  13. Why is eternal sunshine of the spotless mind your favorite movie?

    it just hits me on a very emotional level

    I haven't watched it in a very long time, so I wonder if it'll affect me the same way now, but it has so far wrecked me every time I've seen it

  14. It seems like of all the videos in your ARP series, based on the number of people reblogging and posting counters, card says moops is the one that ticked of the most tumblr reactionaries. Like not just repost 'the left does this as well' variations but going point for (misrepresented) point. What button was pressed?

    I took aim at 4chan and web culture.

  15. Do you, as an American, fear being shot in your day-to-day life? I ask because I, not being American, think I would if I resided there.

    No, but I probably should be.

    When I grew up, mass shootings were a Big Deal. I was in high school when Columbine happened. It was a huge event. It was in the news for months. I knew kids who got pulled into the principal's office for wearing trenchcoats and carrying what someone thought was a rifle case (it was a camera from Video Production class). Multiple movies were made inspired by it, and several documentaries. It was such an event that it kind of got ingrained in my head that this is a rare thing.

    We didn't get the active shooter drills, the increased security, the backpacks with metal plates in them. It was a tragedy, not a fact of life; a thing that technically *can* happen but probably never would to us. So that's what still feels "normal" to me.

    That's not how things are anymore, where so many mass shootings happen every week that we can't even keep track of them. It's something I read about in my feeds, hear about on the news, but it doesn't feel like it touches me. I even know people who've been near active shootings, but it hasn't crossed over in my mind to "this could happen to me."

    How we learn to tolerate the intolerable doesn't always make sense.

  16. Do you monetize your videos via ads?

    no

  17. Have you heard of Desert Bus for Hope?

    of course

  18. okay so long story short

    Lindsay Ellis's recent video on Woke Disney movies got copyright claimed by UMG, who monetized the video, which put the video in breach of her sponsorship contract from Audible, which stipulated that she not run ads on her video. YouTube and UMG declined to release the claim, responding to her with their usual "we'll work on it" guff, leading Lindsay to say she would be pursuing formal legal action.

    She's stated that she intends to pursue this, apparently along with other similarly screwed YouTubers, regardless of if the content ID claim that led up to this chain of events is released in the meantime.

    https://twitter.com/thelindsayellis/status/1188915090235330560

    so that's the lowdown

    in response to Do you have any thoughts on Lindsay Ellis' lawsuit? Specifically, do you think it has any chance of changing youtube's inadequate policies?

    Oh dang, I'd heard about it, but didn't see the "see you in court" line. I'm pretty onboard with this!

    Thing is, it almost certainly won't go to trial, because YouTube is utterly terrified of having their policies regulated. But it could also go bad for us YouTubers? Fair Use is one of those things where, technically, it's only Fair Use if a judge agrees it's Fair Use. Like, if you get sued, you can claim Fair Use and make your case. And if a particular judge determines that Lindsay's video is NOT Fair Use - which it clearly is but sometimes judges are dicks - it sets a precedent that affects every other YouTuber.

    My best hope is that the threat of going to trial will compel YouTube to change their policies, because neither side wants to go to Actual Court.

  19. Do you have any thoughts on Lindsay Ellis' lawsuit?

    Specifically, do you think it has any chance of changing youtube's inadequate policies?

    what lawsuit?

  20. Coming from a Leftist!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Owned!!!!!!!!

    in response to what is the worst kind of shoe

    u got me

  21. The same could be said for Biden, at the very least vis a vis armchair diagnosis

    in response to What do you think of people who suggest that Trump is "stupid" or "idiotic" or "insane" or whatever? I personally don't like it, because a) it's ableist, it plays into the idea mentally ill people are inherently bad people, and b) it really doesn't matter, in my opinion, what Trump's motives or rationale are, the fact is he's doing bad shit and needs to be stopped in some way Would you agree?

    yeah, you can just call Biden a handsy creep

  22. What do you think of people who ship hbomberguy with Folding Ideas?

    is that a thing?

  23. Would you recommend Ativan?

    in response to Do you ever think about the fact that we're all going to die?

    kinda hard to recommend brain pills since every brain reacts differently to them. in general, you should only ever use benzos *very sparingly*, as they can be highly addictive. I try never to take Ativan twice in the same week, and, unless I'm going through some particularly rough stuff in my life, usually don't take it more than once a month. but it helps with panic attacks, persistent anxiety, and even insomnia, so, yeah, it's done me good.

  24. What do you think of people who suggest that Trump is "stupid" or "idiotic" or "insane" or whatever? I personally don't like it, because a) it's ableist, it plays into the idea mentally ill people are inherently bad people, and b) it really doesn't matter, in my opinion, what Trump's motives or rationale are, the fact is he's doing bad shit and needs to be stopped in some way

    Would you agree?

    in response to Hi there! I know you can't offer input as to the mind of Trump itself, but I do have a question. In the (non-verbatim) transcript, I agree obviously that Trump is asking the Ukrainian president to investigate the Biden family, his (current) main political rival. Do you think Trump genuinely believes the Bidens did something fishy, or is also (but much more implicitly) asking the Ukranian president to invent allegations unfavourable for Biden's chances at re-election? I don't know whether Trump is smart enough to use something like that, or whether he's genuinely obsessed with conspiracy theories.

    yeah, I steer clear of ableist language with Trump as well. there's really no reason to throw neurodivergent people under the bus when talking about an asshole. even people who point out that Trump displays some signs of dementia or antisocial personality disorder... even if they're right, armchair diagnosis is never a good idea. Trump's behavior is perfectly understandable through the lenses of racism, privilege, misogyny, wealth, aggression, ignorance, and (non-clinical) narcissism. that's diagnosis enough.

  25. If someone wants to take you on a nice business lunch where would you wish them to invite you to and talk things over for a nice impression?

    if they're willing to accommodate me being vegan, I'm happy

    if they take me to an actual vegetarian/vegan restaurant, I'm thrilled

    if they take me to a vegetarian/vegan restaurant I've never been to? I'm theirs forever

  26. have you ever considered doing lower effort vlog videos to fill out the long wait between higher effort video essays a la Folding Ideas

    in response to With many youtubers out there it seems that they put a lot of effort into appearing one way but they acting completely differently. Does this occur with you? do you act differently in real life or do you make your videos come across similarly to how you are in day-to-day life?

    not unscripted stuff, no, but I've got some bite-sized videos planned

  28. what is the worst kind of shoe

    the left one

    ridiculous

  29. Would you have any interest in delivering a commencement address for a small liberal arts college in New England? (and if so, is there a public email address through which the school could contact you)

    innuendostudiosian[at]gmail[dot]com

  31. do you ever get annoyed when the same people who you don't know keep trying to get your attention on social media?

    most people who interact with me on social media are pretty respectful of boundaries (minus the people who just yell at me and get blocked). there is only a small handful who are clearly wanting more than a casual interaction and are consistently trying to get more from me.

    I don't know if "annoying" is the right word, but it's very unpleasant.

  32. Hey, Ian! I am thinking I'll FINALLY be starting my media analysis channel on YouTube. You are a massive inspiration, and I'm asking both for permission and advise. Any suggestions would be great, and some assurance from yourself would help dispel my anxiety about it.

    I am thinking I'll start off with a series of videos analyzing short, brilliant moments in media called "One Brief Shining Moment". You can guess it's a lot like "Story Beats", except it's mostly not about video games and I'm not conceiving it as a start-to-end series. Some ideas I have for episodes include, "What makes Darlene's [SPOILERS!!!] in Mr Robot unique" and, "Good moments in bad Batman media."

    I am wondering if there are any suggestions on how you want me to distance myself from your brand and if you would suggest any Must-Haves for a beginning YouTube channel, i.e. microphones, cameras, draw pad, etc. If you respond, I will be happy to let you know when the video is up and what channel it will be on. I turned off Anon settings so you can look out for my account in the future.

    hey, sorry this took a million years to respond to

    don't worry about distancing from my brand, just do your own thing and I trust you'll establish your own voice in time; my first video was shamelessly inspired by David Foster Wallace and Errant Signal

    I also used a shitty mic and a shitty tablet and no camera for my first vid, so don't sweat that either. if you still want recs, nowadays I use a Blue Snowball mic - more or less the default prosumer mic for YouTube and podcasting, best sound-quality-to-price ratio among USB mics - and an Intuos Pro for my tablet, which is probably overkill. I rarely appear on camera so I can't recommend much there; my webcam gets the job done when I need to cameo.

    there are better mics/tablets/cameras if you get serious but I'd recommend against getting to tech-fixated; YouTube has a high tolerance for low budget aesthetics. just make something honest, that's what matters. you can pick up the rest over time.

    good luck

  33. Do you ever think about the fact that we're all going to die?

    yeah, that's what the Ativan is for

  34. Hi.

    I don't know if you are the person to answer this question for me, but it's been in my head recently and I can't puzzle it out and I like your film content so maybe you are!

    I don't think there's anything such thing as an objectively good movie, really, or that anyone's opinion of a movie being objectively good really holds water. The best we can do, I feel, is trust out gut reactions and determine if we can construct coherent arguments around them.

    But would you even tolerate the idea that, say, Fury Road is not a good movie? I struggle to reconcile that — that there's no such thing as objective goodness AND that Fury Road isn't a sincerely (objectively) better movie than Paranormal Activity 2.

    Do you have any thoughts about this? Often it feels like people use their "objective opinions" as a way to disguise the insecurity they have about those opinions, and their inability to justify them intelligently. But I also see people talking in good faith, including friends of mine, saying things like "I like Return of the Jedi more, but Empire Strikes Back is objectively the better movie".

    Please help!!

    I tend towards the (wholly subjective and unscientific) feeling that, above a certain level of competence, everything is a matter of taste. but, below a certain level of competence, movies are just bad. like, it's OK to say The Room is an objectively bad movie. that doesn't mean it isn't enjoyable, or isn't art, but you don't have to qualify it with "in my opinion."

    above that level of competence, I will usually default to "I don't like it" or say "it's bad" WITH the "in my opinion" qualifier (stated or implied).

    the same goes for movies above a certain level of moral reprehensibility. like, Shopgirl is a perfectly competent movie but one of the most blithely, quietly sexist films I've ever seen, and I have no trouble flatly saying that makes it bad. this, again, doesn't mean it can't be enjoyed, or has no redeeming features, and the threshold for "this is immoral to the point of being objectively bad" is pretty dang high. but I don't have trouble drawing that line.

    if we're TRULY honest with ourselves, obviously there are no objective opinions, and where these thresholds are is not going to be agreed on. but it's safe to function *as though* such lines exist, because it's not worth the effort of entertaining that The Room might be good from a certain point of view. it's safe to agree that it's bad and talk about what makes it compelling with that as a baseline.

  35. Ah shit! Ifucked it up! What's your pitch?

    in response to Okay so here's the pitch: You start with the top 100 most popular recipes of all time and in each episode you try to make one completely vegan, and completely ethically, and at the end of every episode the result is the same. It's not as good because there is no ethical consumption under capitalism. Either the amount of work it would take is wholly undoable for the average person, or it's flat out impossible. But also you also have guests and make TGBBS like jokes and it's fun despite the impending doom of reality! <3 <3 <3

    so ok you get a bunch of quality vegan chefs on the show, right? and, like great british bakeoff everybody's nice to each other and there aren't any silly rules that create drama. everybody is just expected to do their best with the challenges.

    round one: a type of food. pizza. burritos. steak and potatoes. approach it however you want, but make it vegan.

    round two: a specific ingredient. seitan. kalamata olives. plantains. make whatever you want, must showcase the ingredient.

    round three: someone comes on and describes a specific meal they used to love but can no longer eat, likely because they're vegan. meringue. clam chowder. my grandma's mulberry rhubarb pie. person who described the meal judges everybody's submissions based on how accurately it captures the feeling of the original meal.

    primary goal of this show is that I get to try every single vegan chef's meal.

  36. I'd argue that the latter two phrases mentioned here had greater use in progressive discourse than Mary Sue. Like, my opinion is that sexism is baked into the term, for one, since it uses a hypothetical name of a female character.

    in response to That's what's also happened to "virtue signalling", which is too bad, because there are certain cases where it absolutely is appropriate *coughGlinnercough*.

    well, I've seen people use "Gary Stu" for male versions of same, but it originated with mostly female writers and female characters. one of those things that probably wasn't sexist when it came into usage because it was an internal criticism among mostly women writers, but is certainly sexist now that men use it dismissively.

  37. Hi there!

    I know you can't offer input as to the mind of Trump itself, but I do have a question. In the (non-verbatim) transcript, I agree obviously that Trump is asking the Ukrainian president to investigate the Biden family, his (current) main political rival.

    Do you think Trump genuinely believes the Bidens did something fishy, or is also (but much more implicitly) asking the Ukranian president to invent allegations unfavourable for Biden's chances at re-election?

    I don't know whether Trump is smart enough to use something like that, or whether he's genuinely obsessed with conspiracy theories.

    Trump seems to decide what he wants to be true and then operate as though it is. His thoughts beyond that I cannot presume to know, and I suspect there might not be any.

  38. How do I as an ally communicate to a fellow SJWs that the language of social justice can be used to venerate ideas that are bad overall?

    Ex: ‘we need more female billionaires’
    Or ‘Nancy Pelosi is good.’

    It appears that neo-liberals are co-opting large segments of our ideological space in an attempt to prop up capitalism overall.

    I’ve see myself as right between being an SJW and a dirtbagger.

    I’m usually able to argue other dirtbaggers into a corner and I can move the needle somewhat with them. However, I’m very hesitant to do it with other SJWs especially if they are a marginalized group.

    Dirtbaggers are obstinate but they love an argument and, at least anecdotally, I’ve found they will agree that the fundamental theory that 3rd wave feminism is based in is sound.

    Tldr: So uhhhh how do you do that ‘left unity’ thing?

    I have no earthly idea

  39. There is a lot of discourse about reading more far-left political works vs not requiring that to be involved in a movement, and while the "you need to have read the book" nerds are the worst, a kind of leftist homestuck fandom, the communist manifesto managed to be about 30 pages, It doesn't have to be a *tome* and I wish there was an easy way to explain the same five or six questions everyone asks lefties in the modern day. So whats the bit of reading/watching/listening you would suggest to introducing someone interested in left-wing ideas?

    Orwell's essays on Democratic Socialism were my entrypoint, and they are a) short, b) written in simple English, and c) free online: http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0300011h.html

  40. Do you think increasing tech literacy among law enforcement (courses and whatnot) would improve things? Cause you know, cops.

    in response to How To Radicalize A Normie gave me a lot to think about and I've rewatched it several times. Having also read Zoe Quinn's book, it feels like a big part of how the alt-right has stayed out of the radar of legal authorities is that legal system *still* doesn't understand that harassment, stalking, nude-leaking, doxing, etc., ARE forms of violence. I know any lefty worth their salt can't expect cops to take a stand against nazis or klansmen, but what are your thoughts?

    yes

    the most important part is that lawyers and judges have greater tech literacy

    but people are going to need to file police reports, which means they need cops to understand what the fuck they're talking about

    look, I don't like cops either, but for the time being we're stuck with them and their tech illiteracy is causing harm

  41. Wouldn't it be more rhetorically effective to simply delineate between individual racism and systemic racism since the general public isn't going to accept that "prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior" alone isn't a form racism?

    in response to question about the "no such thing as racism against whites". By smart people usage: Racism describes a systematic power of oppression that obviously white people can never fall under because they are the ruling class. But by the dictionary definition, racism is also "prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior." Could this not be expressed on an individual level as well? And could this not be called out as "racist"? Especially if there's an organization created about that despite the institutional and societal powers? I ask this because on the SPLC entry for Black Nationalism Hate Groups is "The racism of a group like the Nation of Islam may be the predictable reaction to white supremacy. But if a white group espoused similar beliefs regarding African Americans and Jews and, few would have trouble describing it as racist and anti-Semitic. If we seek to expose white hate groups, we cannot be in the business of explaining away the black ones." So they call it out as "anti-white" and "racism". This seems to directly contradict the notion that "there's no such thing as racism against white people" as that latter is basically saying white people can't experience prejudice based on their race. Which on a systematic level is completely 100% true but it seems to also imply that any intra-personal prejudice based on race is not valid because it's not "racism".

    don't say "general public" when you mean white people

  42. With many youtubers out there it seems that they put a lot of effort into appearing one way but they acting completely differently. Does this occur with you? do you act differently in real life or do you make your videos come across similarly to how you are in day-to-day life?

    I'm dense and wordy in real life, but I'm denser and wordier in videos.

    But there are a lot of aspects of myself I don't put on YouTube. In away-from-keyboard life I'm sillier, at times more confident and at times more insecure, more excitable, more unfiltered, less careful, etc. I think leaning into those qualities would make me a good vlogger, but that's not what I'm trying to be.

  43. Hi, I just discovered you from following r/AgainstHateSubreddits. Thank you for the work you have done. I also really like the sound of your voice.

    that's really sweet, thank you

  44. I recently rewatched your older series on adventure games. With that and ScummVM recently adding support for the 1997 Blade Runner I decided to jump back in to some of the older games (and a few newer ones like Machinarium that have knocked around on my Steam games for years.)

    There's been some misses but also some amazing hits like Loom, Fate of Atlantis and a few others.

    So uh, thanks for making those videos I guess, they're pretty great?

    :D

  45. If the "alt-right" as a contemporary political movement diminishes to complete irrelevance before you're able to finish the series, will the series still be named "The Alt-Right Playbook"?

    that's not going to happen

  46. Why does STEM find the need to look down upon the humanities?

    because STEM is culturally coded as masculine and the humanities are culturally coded as feminine and/or queer

  47. Do we really want cops to know how to use the internet, though? If ever we want to use the internet to plot organized action, and we don't want the cops to stop us, we wouldn't want to make it easy for them, now would we?

    in response to How do we increase tech literacy for those who need it most right now? And what would it look like?

    teaching people how online harassment works doesn't mean teaching them how leftists organize

    trust me, the ones who want to stop us already know how to use the web

  48. How do we increase tech literacy for those who need it most right now? And what would it look like?

    in response to How To Radicalize A Normie gave me a lot to think about and I've rewatched it several times. Having also read Zoe Quinn's book, it feels like a big part of how the alt-right has stayed out of the radar of legal authorities is that legal system *still* doesn't understand that harassment, stalking, nude-leaking, doxing, etc., ARE forms of violence. I know any lefty worth their salt can't expect cops to take a stand against nazis or klansmen, but what are your thoughts?

    Short of creating effective training programs and passing legislation to make it mandatory for law enforcement? I'm not sure.

  49. so... All Gabes are Jacks, but not all Jacks are Gabes?

    in response to How would you compare/contrast Gabe Whiteman to Angry Jack?

    sure, but it's not very profound to say "all Gabes are Jacks" when just about everyone is Jack some of the time

  50. Might not be the right sort of question, but how do you approach things that used to be sources of fun but now just provoke stress?

    Left/Bread/TheYouTubeThatILikeTube helped me a lot about a year ago get through a very tough time, but now the thing just feels too large and ungainly to enjoy

    might be time to take a break, at least

    if it's time to move on, I try to keep the parts I like and let the rest go as I search for new things that fulfill me

  51. Heya! Just wanted to say you really knocked it out of the park with your most recent video!

    thanx

  52. Generation of visual art you want to see represented more in video game aesthetic choices

    we haven't had many games inspired by cubism

    (no, Thomas was Alone isn't cubist)

  53. How would you compare/contrast Gabe Whiteman to Angry Jack?

    Gabe is an Angry Jack.

    But, then, anyone with privilege is Angry Jack some of the time. Gabe is always Gabe.

  54. Why the name Gabe?

    Whitest name I could think of.

  55. question about the "no such thing as racism against whites". By smart people usage: Racism describes a systematic power of oppression that obviously white people can never fall under because they are the ruling class.

    But by the dictionary definition, racism is also "prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior." Could this not be expressed on an individual level as well? And could this not be called out as "racist"? Especially if there's an organization created about that despite the institutional and societal powers?

    I ask this because on the SPLC entry for Black Nationalism Hate Groups is "The racism of a group like the Nation of Islam may be the predictable reaction to white supremacy. But if a white group espoused similar beliefs regarding African Americans and Jews and, few would have trouble describing it as racist and anti-Semitic. If we seek to expose white hate groups, we cannot be in the business of explaining away the black ones."

    So they call it out as "anti-white" and "racism". This seems to directly contradict the notion that "there's no such thing as racism against white people" as that latter is basically saying white people can't experience prejudice based on their race. Which on a systematic level is completely 100% true but it seems to also imply that any intra-personal prejudice based on race is not valid because it's not "racism".

    I think we need to remind ourselves that the entire concept of race was invented *by white people* for the purpose of oppressing non-whites. Remember that whiteness still relies on the "one drop" philosophy that whiteness is the absence of any other race while other races don't operate on those rules.

    So if all the rules are made up, and, even within those rules, whiteness is an exception to them, how can you be racist against whites when whiteness is the absence of race? Whiteness is, *by its own definition*, a structural oppression. As a white guy I'm not happy about this, and it doesn't feel great if people lash out at my unfairly, but that's the history of race, and any dictionary or SPLC definition that doesn't account for that is buying into a narrative spread by white supremacy to erase history.

    We can't talk about racism and ignore why racism exists and how race is constructed. And, the moment you do, you're talking in terms of systemic oppression, which white people don't experience. Therefore, you can't be racist against white people.

  57. If I tells an edgy joke in a forest and only my non-racist friends are around to hear it, is it still racist?

    there is no non-racist answer to "why do you want to tell that joke in the first place?"

  58. If belief follows action, to what extent would it be possible to prescribe any tactic to counter the alt-right playbook?

    when I have counter-strategies believe me I'll tell you

    but I do believe they exist

  59. What do you think would happen to the world if the entire internet suddenly went completely offline and stayed that way

    what if it were harder to be cruel to strangers but we had less access to information?

    might be worth the tradeoff, but I'd rather fix the internet than abandon it

  60. I've been thinking a lot about the digital self-harm feedback loop that you mentioned in your newest video. I can't help but notice that I've fallen into a similar left-wing loop (ie "capitalism is going to kill us all, and the only people that will take me seriously are the people that affirm that belief"). Do you have any idea how we could fix this?

    Online radical conservatism largely disallows healthy, emotionally-supportive relationships.

    While it's easy to fall into similar patterns in Leftist spaces, the Left, on the whole, allows, and, on a decent platform, encourages emotionally-supportive relationships. You may have to do some legwork to form them, same as forming any healthy relationships. You may also benefit from trying to put some theory into practice and take some political action, which definitely helps *me* when I'm feeling overwhelmed.

    There's actually a thread about exactly this on r/Breadtube right now, which I saw because they mentioned me (shameless self-promotion): https://www.reddit.com/r/BreadTube/comments/dmd9o1/i_feel_like_im_using_breadtube_the_same_way_i/

  62. the actual reason is the cosmic difference in cost between 2-3 writers writing diary entries and logs (and then the translation of that) vs those writers, and ALSO as many voice actors recording lines as you now need (and again, for the translation) for as long as you need. You may notice only one of those two types of workers has a mature union, and this kind of recording being the standard means that you can't weaken that union by only hiring the same dozen big names for your voice work.

    Shamelessly using that subject as a jumping off point, why are unions so demonised by the far right when they have proven possible to infiltrate just like any other community?

    in response to yeah but like why is Gone Home not just the standard

    because they are ideologically opposed to people at the bottom of hierarchy exercising their power

  63. How much of a nit pick is it for me to be frustrated when people cite all the various billionaires' Net Worth when talking about how they could fix everything since Net Worth doesn't tell anybody the actual amount of dollars that they have in their bank account. Does it make it more or less of a nit pick if I agree with the premise of their frustration (too much money not fixing problems) and recognize their current bank accounts still probably have a ton of cash in them.

    It's kind of a misrepresentation to talk about net worth as though that's a billionaire's cash-on-hand, but I feel it's even more inaccurate to describe their worth without taking all their assets into account. Net worth, even if it's not all the money they have, is theoretically all the money they have access to, so when we talk about the things they can accomplish, yeah, net worth paints a better picture. I think it's an acceptable shorthand.

  64. There's so much fantasy and sci fi in games, what's an aesthetic you want to see more?

    Frankly, I'd be happy with sci-fi and fantasy that just wasn't from the same handful of influences. Like, where are my baroque space operas? Where are my German folktales? Why's everything gotta by Aliens and Lord of the Rings?

    But to answer your question, I feel like standard, low-concept dramas largely don't exist in games. Most of our stories about people dealing with real-world problems have some kind of high-concept hook, and I'm curious how you make a game engaging if it's just humans being humans.

  65. First, are stupid questions allowed?

    Second, Do you fear a second american civil war? i mean im FAIRLY certain it aint gonna happen but i mean..... it might, with those dangerous alt-right extremist groups growing and gaining power(citation needed), and loss of faith in the current status quo(citation needed).

    I mean, can we acknowledge that the modern Far Right can't keep control over its adherents at a fucking PARADE? I don't think they'd fare well on a battlefield. LARPing as a militant doesn't make you a soldier.

  66. Do you think that will change as (hopefully) the current figureheads are supplanted by those from the new generation?

    in response to How To Radicalize A Normie gave me a lot to think about and I've rewatched it several times. Having also read Zoe Quinn's book, it feels like a big part of how the alt-right has stayed out of the radar of legal authorities is that legal system *still* doesn't understand that harassment, stalking, nude-leaking, doxing, etc., ARE forms of violence. I know any lefty worth their salt can't expect cops to take a stand against nazis or klansmen, but what are your thoughts?

    yeah, but then we'll have new problems those figureheads are a generation behind on

    what we need is a means of training our legal system to understand the cutting edge of criminality, rather than waiting for people who get it to age into the system

  67. How far ahead and how meticulously (or not) do you plan future episodes of The Alt-Right Playbook? How often and for what reasons do these plans tend to change?

    I have a long list of topics that I am tweaking pretty steadily, but I haven't mapped out the order of videos for the entire series. I typically plan one batch at a time: when subjects are interrelated, I like to release them in a sequence. So You Go High, We Go Low, The Card Says Moops, and Always a Bigger Fish came out close to each other because they're all about ideology. But then, while I was working on them, I realized I probably needed to dig into the ideology of fascism itself, and that was too big to fit into any of the planned videos, so I did the Endnote on White Fascism. Then, after doing Always a Bigger Fish, I figured I needed an Endnote showing the historical precedent for my argument, and had been meaning to talk about my research process for a bit anyway. So a planned trilogy became a quintet.

    That's how plans usually evolve. Also the videos keep getting longer than I planned and I keep needing Endnotes to expand on subjects or give context that will be necessary for future videos. How to Radicalize a Normie was completely unexpected - I was just researching hate groups and cults and realized a video on recruitment would be a good idea. Wasn't part of any planned batch, but it felt important, so I did it as a standalone.

    So: the furthest I've planned anything out is three months, but sometimes three turns into five.

  68. How To Radicalize A Normie gave me a lot to think about and I've rewatched it several times. Having also read Zoe Quinn's book, it feels like a big part of how the alt-right has stayed out of the radar of legal authorities is that legal system *still* doesn't understand that harassment, stalking, nude-leaking, doxing, etc., ARE forms of violence. I know any lefty worth their salt can't expect cops to take a stand against nazis or klansmen, but what are your thoughts?

    yes, absolutely, the legal system is *seriously* tech illiterate, and a shocking number of cops use the internet for email and literally nothing else

    but the Alt-Right is directly contributing to acts of domestic terror now, and they still generally get a pass from law enforcement. tech illiteracy is a big part of that - try explaining to a judge what 8chan is - but it's also the reflexive empathy our society gives to white men, the way we overlook histories of abuse towards women as precursors to mass shootings, and this administration's refusal to police white nationalism the way it polices Islamic extremists. tech illiteracy goes hand-in-hand with privilege and bigotry.

  70. Mount and blade fan here, bought in on the first early build for the first game as soon as i could spend money on it.
    The mount and blade community has been such a case study in the alt-right infiltrating and driving a wedge in a community that when you started talking about that i assumed it *was* the blueprint for it.
    Warband's great though. Ride or die for Lady Isolla, out with the butterlord!

    in response to In the alt right playbook episode number "theres always a bigger fish" (thats a number now btw), at EXACTLY 17:26 , why did you use the mount and blade warband main menue background as the symbolism for fascism? like, i dont really mind i can sorta see how its fitting but i just wanna make sure- you dont got anything against mount and blade warband, do you?

    I don't know what most of those words mean, but cool.

  71. you might have addressed this in the past, but: there's a popular formulation of conservatism: "There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect". I can't really square this with your (actually sourced) hierarchy model from Always a Bigger Fish - those at the top of the pyramid are bound to defend it. That pithy summation seems to be a much more accurate way to explain e.g. Republicans trying to storm a closed session, than does the hierarchy model. Do you agree with that pithy summation, and if so how do you reconcile it with your model from Always a Bigger Fish?

    in-groups at the top of the pyramid and out-groups at the bottom

    or did I misunderstand you?

  73. Can you BBQ vegan dishes if so what would you recommend if you've tried

    in response to What do you think of fried fruit?

    can't really go wrong with vegan sausage and burgers on a grille

    grilled portabellos, too, with some balsamic and seasoning

    can always grill pineapple and watermelon, too

    or some seitan skewers

    or some smoked tofu

    mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

  74. Not gonna lie your latest video made me go into a bit of a depression spiral. Especially the stuff about black pill and social isolation. I was not really prepared for something so close to home in a video from you.

    Sorry fam. I tried to end on a positive note for once, but, yeah, we go to some dark places sometimes.

  75. No questions, I just want to say that I really liked the latest Alt-Right Playbook video. I think you did an excellent job tackling a very complicated subject. Cheers.

    <3

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